Success Formula to become the IPL Champion

Yesterday, Deccan Chargers (DC) Hyderabad had won the IPL 2009 Championship after beating Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in an absorbing final in Jo'burg, South Africa.  Well Done Adam Gilchrist & your DC team-mates for the achievement, particularly considering how your team was placed after last year's inagural IPL.

Our appreciation also goes to the REAL WARRIOR & FIGHTER to the core, Anil Kumble and his valiant team RCB, for the way they have put up a fight & kept the match with DC alive till the penultimate ball, something similar to last year's Championship match too.  Thanks Anil for proving to the world how grit & determination can override age in this format too.

As far as IPL 2, as a tournament, is concerned, it has turned out to be a stupendous success.  The tournament has revived SA's economy in these troubled and recessionary times.  This was disclosed to the world by none other than the President of South Africa himself in the closing ceremony held after the finals.  Lalit Modi, the IPL Commissioner, has surely converted a challenge (of shifting the tournament out of India) thrown at him into an opportunity and show-cased India as a happening country through the efficient & successful conduct of IPL 2 within such a short span of time (3 weeks) and for such a long duration (about 5 weeks or so).

Now that two seasons of IPL have been concluded and Rajasthan Royals (RR) (in 2008) and Deccan Chargers (DC) (in 2009) have been crowned as the IPL Champions, here is my take-away as to what could be, inter alia, a success formula to become the Champion Team in the Indian Premier League (Hope the IPL Team Owners are reading this).

1.  Recruit and appoint an Australian cricketer, who is also a Big Match Player, as the Captain of your team (Shane Warne - RR Captain in 2008 & Adam Gilchrist - DC Captain in 2009)

2.  If he is a retired Australian cricketer, the better, since he can be available for the full length of the tournament (Both Warne in 2008 & Gilli in 2009 are retired)

3.  Have an Australian as the coach (Warne himself for RR and Darren Lehmann for DC in 2009) (I can hear Sourav, Shah Rukh & FakeIPLPlayer gritting their teeth at my suggestion)

4.  Have a hard-hitting South African as an opening batsman (Graeme Smith for RR and Herschelle Gibbs for DC)

5.  Have at least one hard-hitting all-rounder down the order (Yusuf Pathan for RR and Rohit Sharma for DC)

6.  Let your premier bowler be a left-arm fast medium one (Sohail Tanvir & R.P.Singh)

7.  Have an all-rounder in the team who is capable of bagging the Player of the Tournament award (Shane Watson for RR in 2008 and Gilli himself for DC in 2009)

8.  Have 1 more member in the team who is capable of bagging one of the two Caps - Orange cap (Maximum runs) or Purple cap (maximum wickets) (Purple Cap holder - Sohail Tanvir for RR in 2008 and R.P. Singh for DC in 2009)

Now that the "secret" of the Success Formula has been spilled out in black & white, can we expect the Khans and Zintas and Ambanis and Mallyas of the world rushing to revamp their teams before the next IPL edition starts?

Last year's Laggards vyeing to be crowned as the IPL Champion this year

Cricket is a funny game. A real funny game which can turn things upside down. That is the beauty of the game. Its latest avatar Twenty 20 is no exception.

That is why, both Deccan Chargers, Hyderabad and Royal Challengers, Bangalore, who were ranked the last & one before that respectively in 2008, are finding themselves facing each other in the finals of IPL 2009. While DC should thank their captain Adam Gilchrist for his blitzkrieg of an innings in the first semi-finals to beat Delhi to be in the final, it was RCB's all round cricket plus their captain Kumble's good captaincy which helped them easily outplay Cheenai Super Kings in the second semi-finals yesterday.

Whether it is bowling or batting or fielding or catching, RCB clearly outplayed CSK in all departments. CSK continued their swift opening in this match too but subsequently lost their way due to good bowling and tight fielding plus catching by RCB. None of CSK's batsmen got going after a good start. As against this, when RCB replied, both their new-found opener Pandey and veteran Dravid, played a fluent but aggressive and pleasing innings & took RCB to the brink of victory which was sealed by Ross Taylor & Virat Kohli with some aggressive hits towards the end of the innings to help RCB overhaul CSK's score of 146 with 7 balls & 6 wickets to spare.

Today, the teams from Hyderabad and Bangalore are going to compete to determine who is going to be IPL Champion in 2009. Let us pray we get to see an extremely competitive final like last year. Let the better team of the day win & be crowned the IPL Champion.

Gilli pulverises Dilli

WOW! What an innings and what a knock played by Adam Gilchrist in the first semi-final of IPL 2 yesterday. One of the best T20 knocks played by anyone since the format has been invented.

The way Gilli batted from the word go, literally, by hitting 5 fours in the very first over bowled by Dirk Nannes of Delhi Daredevils, one could sense that some real entertainment is in store from Gilli and Delhi Daredevils, unfortunately, were at the receiving end of Gilli's onslaught. The way Gilli got going from the first over, Deccan Chargers raced to 84 for 1 in the first 6 Power Play overs itself. I though t match won't even go beyond the Strategic Time-out. But, exactly at the last ball before the Time-out, Gilli got out to an attempted pull off a Amit Mishra delivery. By then, Gilli had scored 85 runs in just 35 balls. Through his innings, Gilli spoiled the confidence and bowling figures of all Delhi bowlers starting from Dirk Nannes, Ashish Nehra, Pradeep Sangwan and even Sehwag, who brought himself to bowl the last Powerplay over but went for 25 runs. Only Dilshan & Amit Mishra, who slowed the pace of the ball with their spin could extract some respect from the Hyderabad batsmen. However, Delhi could not prevent Chargers from running away with the match in the 18th over.

Now, Deccan Chargers are through to the finals of IPL 2 and will meet the winner of today's second semi-finals between Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore. From the way Gilli batted yesterday, it seems that whoever meets Deccan Chargers in the finals, are in for a big challenge.

Gilli has proved, yet again, that he is a Big Match player. Thanks Gilli for entertaining us with such a stupendous knock in IPL 2 like you played against Mumbai Indians (in a league match played at Mumbai) in the first IPL.

Voters in TN have Rejected the LTTE supporters

Hats Off to Tamil Nadu voters!!! What a fantastic PUNCH they have delivered against the likes of RowdyDas, Vaigo, Commies & Jaya? WOW!!! Three Cheers to TN Voters.

Before the polls, I was really beginning to get worried, like many other nationalist minds, that if LTTE coolies' shrill propaganda in TN will actually influence the voters' minds and how will it affect the new government to be formed at the centre.

But, to my great relief, the VOTERS OF TAMIL NADU HAVE REJECTED THE LTTE SUPPORTING POLITICAL PARTIES OUTRIGHT. The entire opposition alliance of AIADMK, PMK, MDMK, CPI & CPM tried to project the Sri Lankan Govt.'s war against LTTE as a genocide against SL Tamils & wanted the Govt. of India to do unreasonable things to stop the war. But, neither the Sonia Cong. nor DMK, to their credit, budged from their position and the Govt. of India did the right thing by not putting any pressure or breaks on Sri Lankan Govt. and its army's ability to destroy the Tamil terrorists & crush any visible vestiges of that movement.

The people of Tamil Nadu have collectively shown their foresight & vision and proved to the world that they are always for India as a united nation & India should not unnecessarily interfere in other countries' internal matters, particularly if it involvs crushing terrorists & terrorism. They have proved to the world that they are more responsible than the entire opoosition parties in Tamil Nadu.

தமிழ் நாட்டை பொறுத்தவரை தீவிரவாத கூலி கும்பலை மக்கள் செருப்படி கொடுத்து வீட்டுக்கு அனுப்பியதில் எனக்கு பரம திருப்தி. கூலி படைகள் சத்தம் போட்டு கொண்டுதான் இருக்கும். வாங்கிய காசுக்கு மாரடிக்கிறார்கள். ஆனால், இலங்கை பிரச்னையை பொறுத்தவரை தமிழ் மக்கள் மிகவும் மிகவும் தெளிவாகவே இருக்கிறார்கள். 1991 இல் என்ன மாதிரி வாக்களித்தார்களோ அதே போன்ற தெளிவு இப்போதும். வெரி குட்.

Just as the election results have been announced & the implications have started to sink in came the GOOD NEWS that LTTE's chief Barbarian Prabakaran has been killed by the Sri Lankan army. That news was the ICING ON THE CAKE. It was like a double treat for any Indian. Well Done, Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa. You have achieved what none of your predecessors could do by your leadership, sheer determination & single-minded focus to crush terrorism. Indian leaders will do well to learn a lesson or two from you.

Now that the LTTE touts like PMK & MDMK have been convincingly defeated & shown their true places in TN's political standing, other major parties like DMK, AIADMK, Sonia Congress & BJP should, in future, deal with them accordingly & not give them too much importance, which they never deserved.

AIADMK's Jayalalitha deserves this defeat - if not for anything else, just for her expediency in shifting from her long standing position of "no support to terrorism of any kind" to that of "supporting separate country for SL Tamils" and thus, indirectly supporting LTTE's cause. The good impression she has painstakingly gained from all right-thinking and nationalist-minded citizens over the years has been irresponsibly, may be irrevocably too, thrown to the winds by her expeditious & short-sighted change of stand just for that mirage called 'political gains at the hustings'.

On the contrary, we should congratulate Karunanidhi for sticking to the Govt. of India's stand of non-interference in other countries' internal affairs. He deserves special praise for this because he took this "very un-Karunanidhi-like" stance against all odds of being labelled as an anti-Tamil. Whatever may be the real or perceived reason based on which he might have taken that stand, he deserves praise nevertheless. Thank You Mr. Karunanidhi & I hope, at least from now, you realise that even if you have to take a nationalist stance vis-a-vis a parochial issue against strong opposition in your state, people will support you.

Sonia & her Congress party deserve the prasie for being firm in their stance, for not budging to the enormous pressure brought about by LTTE's propaganda machine and for allowing the SL Govt. to take the war to its logical end. Now that the LTTE & their terrorists have been fully destroyed, the Govt. of India will do well to put enough bilateral & international diplomatic pressure to make SL Govt. to speedily work on rehabilitation and devolution matters to the Tamils there. Only by taking quick rehabilitation measures would the wounds of war-ravaged people can be tried to be healed.

Last but not the least, it is amusing to see the reactions of the so many LTTE sponsored websites & Tamil bloggers. All of them are now crying hoarse & their wail has become much more shriller now that the world has been officially told by Sri Lankan Govt. that Prabakaran is killed in the war. They are all trying to pacify themselves & trying to keep their flock together by concocting weird theories of how he is still alive, how he will dramatically appear after some time, etc. All this are understandable since they are (i) shocked by the turn of events & (ii) realise that THEIR SOURCE OF FUNDS WILL TOTALLY DRY-UP NOW THAT THE LTTE IS EXTINCT. That is what is pinching them. It is like, after some fierce street fight gets over & the crowd has disbursed, still some street dogs will roam about barking for some bread-crumbs. Only after a lot of barking with no avail will they realise that nobody is bothered about them & then only they will slowly move to some trash-bin nearby & settle down there. So, let us not disturb them & let them take their own sweet time to find a trash-bin.

Regarding whether Prabakaran is alive or dead, the point to note is that SL Govt. and Army will not go to such an extent of openly declaring the news to the world, showing some videos & photos of the body (howsoever disputable it may be) & announcing the mass burial in an undisclosed and an unmarked area, without making sure that EVEN IF HE IS ALIVE, HE WON'T BE ABLE TO RE-SURFACE ON THE SAME IDENTITY. Otherwise, their nation's legal credibility will go to dogs. Other nations, like for eg. India, have cases against the LTTE terrorists & Prabakaran. Those cases can be closed only based on authenticated death certificate from the SL Govt. Therefore, it is reasonable to expect that the Sri Lankan Govt. would have taken adequate legal, scientific & logistical corroborations before announcing the news.

Is it Indian Premier League or South Indian Premier League?

Three teams out of this year's four semi-finalists in IPL are from South India.  Except Delhi Daredevils, all the other three teams in the SFs, i.e. Chennai Super Kings, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Deccan Chargers Hyderabad are all from the three southern states of India viz., Tamil nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

But, if we see who the owners of these four SF teams, then it becomes an out & out South Indian semi-finals in IPL 2.  Even the only non-southie team in SF, Delhi Daredevils, are owned by GMR Group, a leading contruction & airports management group from Hyderabad.  As we all know, the other three teams are owned by India Cements (of Chennai), United Brewery (of Bangalore) and Deccan Chronicle (of Hyderabad) groups, respectively.

So, IPL 2009, has become a sort of SIPL i.e. South Indian Premier League.  Hope in the first semi-finals taking place today, even the top-ranked Delhi team is beaten by Deccan Chargers  so that the IPL Trophy surely belongs to a South Indian team this year.

Looking forward to witness really competitive and interesting knock-out matches during the semi-finals & finals of SIPL.  Happy IPL week-end to all.

RED Liquid Smeared on the Face of PINK Chaddi Campaigners

One of the satisfying outcome from the results of the recently held Lok Sabha Elections has been the way the voters in Karnataka overwhelmingly voted FOR BJP and thus smeared RED Liquid (what it means, I leave it to the imagination of the reader) on the face of the "psudo-secularists" and "progressive intellectuals" and "feminists"(?), who recently mounted a vehement, relentless & a shameless campaign called "pink chaddi campaign" against Rama Sena & its campaign against spread of immoral culture among Indian women.

Though the methods adopted by Rama Sena mat not be correct, their campaign against the spread of western culture and, under its guise, immorality among the Indian youth, particularly women, is praise-worthy.  Only those Indians with a deranged mind & a perverted sense of morality can dispute the motive of Rama Sena's campaign.  But, as many of us know, such humanoids can be found aplenty in India nowadays, thanks to economic liberalisation, which brought in its wake a cultural liberalisation and also communications revolution, which facilitated the spread of internet, which in turn, gave anonymity for its user, who can then spread any mischievous propaganda.  Add to this concoction a vicious, an ethic-less, a biased & an anti-Hindu (but, you guessed it right, a call-themselves-secular) media and you have the potion called "BJP & Sangh-Parivar Bashing".

Because the state was ruled by a BJP Govt. when Rama Sena did what they did - forcibly removing cigarette-smoking, drinking & dancing girls from Pubs/Night Clubs in Mangalore in the night as these are against Indian culture, these psudo-secular worthies found it offensive, against personal freedom and against women's rights.  Though drinking or smoking or dancing is one's personal choice, in Indian culture, we don't expect ladies to do such things & that too in public. Indian culture respects ladies and our scriptures give the utmost position to Mother - above Father, Teacher and God.  Moreover, the recent trend has been to prevent even males from indulging in smoking & drinking activities due to health reasons, there is no logical reason, other than just fun and pleasure, for these young ladies, who must have got influenced by the MTV culture.

So, when their own family elders did not or could not prevent them from getting astray, Rama Sena tried to do that, albeit in a forcible way.  But, instead of, at least advising those ladies, who gave these psudo-seculars the right to criticise and mount a vicious campaign only against Rama Sena?  They could have condemned the methodology of Rama Sena and urged the Govt. to initiate legal action.  If these worthies were fair-minded, they would have also advised the ladies who attended the night club & pub, to refrain from such acts in future.  But, instead, they acted in a discriminatory and vicious manner agsinst Rama Sena only.

When Rama Sena forcibly removed the women who were smoking, drinking & dancing from the pubs, many of these worthies took cudgels on "behalf" of the "affected" parties and campaigned against Rama Sena for their, what they called, "moral policing".  Though none of the affected girls have filed a single case till date against Rama Sena or anyone else, these "worthies" started a campaign called "Pink Chaddi Campaign" by asking all ladies to send a Pink Chaddi to the office of Rama Sena as a protest against Rama Sena's atrocities against women(?).  No women who was brought up in Indian culture can tolerate what these ladies did & would have dismissed the campaign call outright.  Some deranged minds might have sent "their" pink chaddis.  However, the media - both print & electronic - went to town with glee - after all this campaign is against a "Sangh Parivar" Govt.  So, how can they miss an opportunity to belittle a BJP Govt.?  More importantly, they have to be loyal to their masters, the Christian Missionaries, who fund them from abroad - is it not?  Many bloggers, who describe themselves as "women", have also actively participated in the campaign by urging all ladies to send "their" Pink Chaddis to Rama Sena.

All these campaigns, it seems, have gone in vain now.  Yes; now it is clear from the results of the election held recently to Lok Sabha that Karnataka voters, in general, and Mangalore voters (where the pub incident took place) and Bangalore voters (where the Pink Chaddi campaign happened), in particular, have SMEARED RED LIQUID on the Face of Pink Chaddi Campigners by overwhelmingly voting for the so-called communal BJP (its vote share % has also increased apaprt from the number of seats) and rejecting the psudo-secular Sonia Cong.  Importantly, the BJP has bagged all the seats in Bangalore city (the only big city/capital in India in which it won seats in this LS election) as also the entire coastal belt in Karnataka, where Mangalore is situated.

This SLAP ON THE FACE OF PINK JADDI CAMPAIGNERS by the Karnataka people has come at the right time as otherwise, these worthies, along with the biased media, would have called it their truimph due to their campaign.

Now that the results have thrown their campaign to dust, none of the media has even bothered to mention that the people have rejected such campaign outright.  And that is the reason why, I am very very happy to highlight this in my blog so that it irritates these worthies, if they happen to read this posting.  Those of you, who share my feeling, are free to refer or forward this to as many of your contacts as possible so that such facts come to the public knowledge.

Long Live Red Liquid Campaign Against Pink Chaddis.

What the results of General Elections 2009 portend?

Though, as a BJP supporter, I took the election results with a tinge of disappointment this time, I was not at all shocked with the results in the same way as I was in 2004 when UPA pipped NDA at the hustings.  If one sees the party-wise seats tally & the vote share including gains & losses, I feel THE INDIAN VOTER IS CLEAR & MATURED.  The voters, in general, have voted for a stable government at the centre & have shown that they are willing to back the party which they perceive is capable of governing the nation without distractions of coalition politics.

According to me, following are the take-aways from the results of the General Elections 2009:

1.  By voting for Sonia Cong. to win 205 seats within an overall UPA tally of 260+ (almost near the half-way mark), people have clearly indicated that they want STABILITY.  By trouncing most of its UPA partners, voters have given the mandate to Sonia Cong. to rule the country without coalition troubles like last time.

2.  BJP need not feel dejected or take any knee-jerk reactions.  Though its own seats, along with that of its NDA coalition, have come down from last time, BJP can take heart from the message given by the electorate.  Since the Indian voter wants a stable, preferably a single party Govt. to rule, by voting for Sonia Cong., BJP should now strive to play a constructive role in the opposition, which will prove to the electorate that BJP is a responsible alterative to Sonia Cong., in case they want to change their preference in the next elections.  So, BJP should not indulge in opposing the Govt. just for the sake of opposition - like they did by opposing the Nuclear Deal.  If BJP feels the Govt. has taken a right policy decision which is good for the country, as a responsible opposition party, they should vote along with the Govt. for such issues.

3.  Sonia Cong. can take heart from the results that many of its policies and programmes have the support of the people but should be careful to not become complacent or over-exhuberant by inviting dictatorial tendencies.  I think, the presence of Dr. Manmohan Singh, as the Prime Minister, should help the party here as he has shown to be a level-headed individual & seems to have the full backing of Sonia too.

4.  I think, overall the Indian Democracy is getting matured.  From several decades of single party rules (1950s, 60s) to voting a party based on emotional issues (1984) to an era of coalitions (since 1989 till now), the Indian Democracy has come a long way.  The electorate is learning the ropes by trial & error.  Now, they are learning that voting for coalitions may not be the only answer to single party dominance.  I think going forward, Indian Democracy may begin to see the emergence of two party rule - at least at the national level.  What I mean here is, the Indian electorate will have two parties (Sonia Cong. vs BJP) to choose from than two coalitions (UPA vs NDA).  That will be better for the country as whichever party is voted to power will have a stable rule & people can judge them on their own merit.  In case they don't deliver the goods, there is an alternative of another national party for the people to choose from in the next election, which will make the party in power to behave responsibly & deliver good governance.

All in all, even if one is not a UPA or Sonia Cong. supporter, one need not despair with the outcome of this election.  Issues like Swiss bank money, corruption, etc., I am sure, can be & will be tackled in the long run.

Here is wishing Dr. Manmohan Singh all the best to give a clean & good government which fast tracks the stalled economic reforms & makes sure to strengthen India's security & anti-terrorism measures.